The Perfect Gentleman Issue 6 | Page 20

TPG: Any other places offer high quality sustainable clothing? TPG: Where are some places that people can buy high quality sustainable menswear? CS: You mentioned Doc Martens and that used to be pretty much the only vegan leather shoe out there for men but now we are seeing an array of vegan leather shoes. They usually take the form of micro-fiber and polyurethane. Micro-fiber, I would say, is the best because it really simulates the structure of natural leather. It is widely used now by Brave Gentleman (bravegentleman.com) who also offers great vegan wool suits made from what they call “future wool.” (The company) is trying to get people to think about this moving toward the future and starting to embrace animal-free fabrics. They make 100% recyclable cotton-poly suits, which are fully lined with what’s called “future silk.” It is a very fine micro-fiber made from recycled plastic bottles. CS: I saw that Crane Brothers in Australia (www.crane-brothers.com) offers a lot of vegan options including custom fitting. Frank & Oak in Toronto (www.frankandoak.com) have many tensile blends. Tensile is more environmentally friendly than wool since it is made from eucalyptus, sustainably grown on land that is unsuitable for food crops. These trees are also grown with minimal water using sustainable foresting methods. Some other companies I recommend include Glass House Shirtmakers (www.glasshouseshirtmakers.com), they make great button-downs, handkerchiefs, and scarves from tensile and hemp. TPG: How about footwear? CS: For shoes, there is the Moo Shoes website (www.mooshoes.com) which is a good one-stop shop for all vegan men’s shoes. Novacas (www.novacs.com), Spanish for “no cow,” makes higher-end vegan footwear that are 100% PVC free. Some people say that PVC is bad for the environment because it uses fossil fuels but what a lot of vegan designer today, in a effort to be a environmentally friendly as possible, are saying they won’t use PVC material because it has gotten such a bad rap over the past few years. They are using more micro-fibers and more eco-friendly recycled product-based polyurethane. PG: Don’t those “recycled” suits look terrible? CS: I was recently looking for a vegan suit for a celebrity who is doing something with us and went to Topman in Los Angeles. It was very hard for me to tell the difference between the wool suits, the wool-blend suits, and the tensile linen ones they sell. It is very similar feel like wool by using a specific kind of fiber. They do a great job of making them look great. You hear about suits that are poly-based looking kind of cheap or cotton suits looking like something you’d wear yachting, and not a suit you’d wear to the office, but I think it is changing. 20 A Gentleman Talks with Christina Sewell